KIRKUS REVIEW

Lovelace and Antoni offer a
“subversive” take on island culture to complement the 21st-century look at
Trinidad offered by Lisa Allen-Agostini and Jeanne Mason’s Trinidad
Noir (2008).

The editors take what at first blush looks like a historical
perspective, starting with stories out of Trinidad’s colonial past, like C.L.R.
James’ “La Divina Pastora,” Michael Anthony’s “The Valley of Cocoa,” and Harold
Sonny Ladoo’s “The Quiet Peasant,” which emphasize the rural landscape. But
Trinidadians are eager to stray from their pastoral roots. In editor Lovelace’s
“Joebell and America,” a gambler yearns to seek his fortune in the States. In
Ismith Khan’s “Uncle Zoltan,” an expat returns to Port of Spain only to be
confronted by his father’s formidable brother. In “The Cricket Match,” Samuel
Selvon shows what happens when Trinidadians bring the island’s favorite game to
London. As their nation moves from colonial rule, Trinidadians discover that
what’s new is old again. They work hard for scant gain, as Jennifer Rahim shows
in “Songster.” Too often, their efforts come up empty, as in Willi Chen’s
“Assam’s Iron Chest.” And in the end, the madness of Barbara Jenkins’
contemporary “Ghost Story” harks back to V.S. Naipaul’s chilling colonial-era
“Man-man.”

Whether history repeats itself or progress is stalled by
people’s infinite capacity to get in their own ways, these 19 reprinted tales
offer a bittersweet perspective on the cussedness of human nature.

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